#12 - How to Use the Moon Phases for Goal Setting, Time Management, and Productivity

Nyssa and Kelly explore how moon phases and lunar cycles can become a practical, soulful framework for goal setting, time management, and personal growth. 

Nyssa shares how working with new moon intentions and full moon reflections helped her call in a conscious relationship, complete projects, and deepen her spiritual practice—plus the now-classic “have you seen this moon?” story. 

If you’re curious about using the lunar cycle, astrology, and intuition to build a life that actually feels aligned, this episode is for you.

Main Topics Covered:

• How a single new moon intention helped call in a conscious relationship
• A simple way to use the lunar cycle as a framework for projects, from idea to completion
• Why the full moon is not the finish line (and what phase actually gets ignored the most)
• What “creation cycle” means—and how it can help you finally complete what you start
• The surprising link between moon phases, menstrual cycles, and emotional clarity
• How a walk to a Zen meditation center under a full moon changed everything
• The playful edge where the sacred meets the profane (including an unforgettable mooning story)
• Using the moon for time management and productivity without losing the magic
• Why Nyssa calls the moon her “forever teacher”and how to let it teach you, too
• How to tell if you’re in a waxing (build) or waning (edit/finish) season in your own life

Links:

• Going Upward Newsletter – Join Nyssa’s list here
• Essential Oil Moon Guide

Books: 

• The Moon Book by Sarah Faith Gottesdiener

Stay in Touch:

Nyssa Hanger: www.nyssahanger.com | IG: @nyssahanger

Kelly Brady: www.kellybrady.me | IG: @drkellybrady

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Hello, hello, everyone. Here we are, episode number eleven, one one of Being Different. Together. And we're here together at our kitchen table. Poppy's right next to us chewing on his bone. You might hear him, but hopefully he will be um joyfully distracted.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

He's getting much better at his bone, don't you think? Definitely. This is when you know you're just like a little over the edge as a dog parent when you're so proud of the way they chew their bone.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Hey, it has been a journey to find a bone for him to chew that doesn't upset his belly or chip his teeth, and we have figured it out. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Maybe I idealized my dog. I'm like, look at the way he's chewing that bone. Do you need a bone to chew? What a good boy. Look how amazing and perfect he is. He's a pretty good chewing his bone.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

So all right. We're going into our next um ten episodes. Which, you know, not that that means anything. Last last week we celebrated our tenth episode, which technically, since we had a trailer, was our 11th episode, but we don't need to get into the weeds on that.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

You know, when you were talking about that, I was just sort of uh free associating, like how humans like milestones. Oh yeah. We like guides, we like milestones, we like things that help us keep track of other things. Yes. Which leads me into our topic for the day. Oh my gosh. Because I was thinking of how we use the moon to keep track of the months.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Yes, month actually it's moon. Okay. So the etymology, the etymology of the word month comes from the moon. So I didn't make that up. No, you totally didn't make that up.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Yeah. Yeah, I don't think I knew the I don't think I knew the actual etymology. Yes. But I was thinking to myself, it's 28-day cycle, it's kind of close to the way we count the calendar here. Um then I was thinking about uh, of course, other lunar, you know, things that are marked by lunar weeks, right? Like when uh when a human is pregnant.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

I remember you would always say that about when you were pregnant.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Yes. Is is the gestation of a human baby. A baby. Give or take. Yes. Because as we know, the moon kind of waxes and wanes. Anyway, we're talking about the moon.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Yeah, we wanted to talk about the moon today because, well, speaking for myself, I freaking love the moon. If you are on my email list or friends with me, um, you know that especially in the past couple of years, I love talking about the moon.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Okay, so all right, listeners, I gotta tell you a story. I after I moved here to Seminole Heights. Yes, I was hoping we would tell the story. This is a couple of years ago now, when Nissa and I first moved in together. I moved here to Seminole Heights, and uh just about a mile from our house is the Florida community of mindfulness. And this is a real boon for me as a longtime, you know, meditator because I can walk there if I want to.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

True.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

And there is a Zendo that is open, and the teacher there is beautiful. Fred Epstiner is a wonderful teacher, he's a Dharma holder for TikN. Um, he's a great guy. And he is also in my Zen lineage. He's adjacent. He started off with the same teacher that my teacher learned from, who is also the same teacher of one Dr. Paul Young Eisendrath, by the way, just to say all of that Zen lineage. So it all means something really important to me that I just so happened to move into a house that was one mile away from this place. And the first night that I moved here and I thought, I'm gonna walk over there, and it was it happened to be a full moon night. I'm gonna walk, it was a beautiful evening. I was like, I'm walking over there, I'm gonna meditate, and then I'm gonna walk home. I walk over there, it's a 20-minute walk, I have a beautiful sit. I mean, I it was a Thursday night, I think. I think it was a Thursday night sit, the extended sit. And so I sat, I had an interview with Fred. I had never met him before, right? And so that was delightful, and I was feeling so grateful. And I walked home underneath the full moon, and I was really kind of blissed out, right? And so I I I walk in the I walk in the front door and I go, babe, come out and look at this moon. Come out and look at this moon, because the moon was sort of sort of just no, you said, have you seen the moon?

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Have you seen the moon? Have you seen the movie?

SPEAKER_02 5:42

Have you seen the moon? Because it was just sort of hanging over the street in a way that you know was just really beautiful. And then Nissa.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

I stood up and I turned around and pulled down my pants and I said, but have you seen this? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

And I turned around thinking that I would hear the laughter that you just heard come out of Kelly Brady's face. But no, no, no, no, no. No, I was appalled. Appalled.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

I'm dying laughing because I'm thinking this is one of my most proudest moments as a comedian, with an exception of the this little piggy from a few episodes, episode number seven. Um yeah. Oh yeah. It it it took us a little while to repair that, which I was not expecting.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Well, it was one of those things where it's like there's this line between the sacred and the profane, right? And and and I and that actually that line between the sacred and the profane is where comedy really, a lot of comedy lives. Totally. Yeah. So I understand. It is completely was completely I was overcome by the trickster. It was completely trickster energy. That's a great actually amplification archetypally of what happened. I was now that we've talked about that.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

By the trick, you can't blame me. I don't.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

It was Coco Pele. It was Coco Pele, it was coyote, it was Raven. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Yeah and I wonder, you know, it's just occurring to me right now. I did hope that we br would bring up the story um about the moon. Of course, this is not the type of moon that we're here to talk about this episode.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

But um I wonder what I've been planning to tell that story at the beginning of this episode since last week, but I didn't I have managed to not tell you that I was planning on telling it.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Well, I figured it was coming up.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

I already knew, babe.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

You knew?

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Damn.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

I was gonna bring it up if you weren't.

unknown 7:48

Damn it.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Yeah. I thought I managed to keep something. No, I mean, sometimes we just really are of one mind.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Oh god. Yeah, well, that's accurate. I do wonder though, now that we're talking about it, um, especially since you brought up the coyote, yeah, um, if there is a relationship between the trickster and the moon, you know, especially since like the moon goes away and comes um definitely eclipses, I think, would be connected to that trickster energy. Um and we can sort of get into that, but um Yeah, when things are hidden. When things are hidden.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

So there is something about the moon where it shows itself to us and then parts of us are hidden and parts of it are hidden, and I think it's it's it's a really beautiful, also kind of um it's like the it's like our it's like us. You know, like we we show parts of ourselves and then we hide parts of ourselves. From ourselves, from each other. From ourselves, from others. Yeah, you know, and um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

And like when the moon does not appear, when it's a new moon, or when parts of it are no longer there, like in a crescent or basically most most of the lunar cycle, some part of it is hidden. It's really only at that full moon type that we're seeing it. And when we're seeing a full moon, guess what? We're not even seeing the whole thing because there's a whole backside of it.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

Yeah, I mean, and uh yeah, that's an excellent back side.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

You said another. Except I did say it. Oh, that's so good. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

You know, growing up in the 70s, mooning was a big thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

Oh, well, in the 90s, there was definitely at least one kid on the bus that was gonna moon a car. Yeah. I mean, mooning was mooning was a big thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

And if you went if you went to elementary or middle or high school with me, I'm gonna tell you who that person was on my bus, and his name was Benjamin Vaughn.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Oh, I don't know who this guy is these days, but I have seen his ass in dipping bus windows my entire growing up. And I'm sure you know of Ben Vaughn in your life.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

And in my life that night that I came home, it was you.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

One of my proudest moments. I couldn't wait to tell my mom about that. She died laughing.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

Oh, yeah, because she had she came to Brunt.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

We went to brunch the following weekend and told her mom that I just sat stony-faced being grumpy.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Welcome to the family. Um, yeah, my mom and I actually have a very fond memory of when we were traveling in I think we were in Scotland at this time, and we were um in one of the Heberes Islands, so like the middle of freaking nowhere, Scotland. Yeah, the Isle of Isla. And we had walked to the local pub for the night, and per the normal style between me and my mom, like we gotta pee, and so we just gonna pee outside, and it was a full moon, and so we kept joking about how we were mooning the moon. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

I really love the idea of you sort of buzzed with your mom peeing in a field on the Isle of Isle.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Yeah, that this happened. The Isle of Isle? I Isle of Isla. I mean Yeah, that was a classic Nessa and Scylla moment for sure. But um but um but listeners, we're gonna actually talk about the the moon. Okay, um, juvenile. So yeah, the moon. Well, I don't know if um we want to get into I mean I'm just gonna go ahead and get into the fact that the moon brought us together. Oh the moon brought us together. And I might have actually mentioned this on one of our earlier episodes. I'd have to go back and look, maybe episode number three on um uh sorry, Poppy just moved on. Very important. A little technical difficulties. And we're back. Sorry for that little technical difficulty.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

We uh Which you will never know about because you it will be all edited out. So back to how we met was the moon, right? And I had forgotten about that.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

So was it an eclipse? Okay, so what happened was um, and I'll just sort of give a little bit of of my spiel here about the moon and working with the moon. Um, astrology for me became a uh pandemic hobby. Like it was something that I learned a lot more about um during the pandemic.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

By that do you mean a hobby that you developed during the pandemic? Yes. I also like the idea of a pandemic hobby, but let's just sort of shelve that. We'll do another episode on that. For a possible video game. Yes. The video game is called Pandemic Hobby. Yes. And you're uh a virus has infected the world.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Uh-huh. And you have to figure out a way to split your time.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

A virus has infected the world with a bunch of people who just are knitting coverings for everything. It's their hobby. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

Well, I think sourdough. Oh. Making sourdough would would definitely be part of that game. For sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Pandemic comedy. Okay, so you got into astrology.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

I learned about astrology. I was going to some moon circles before there then. Like I would like to pay attention to when there was a new moon and a full moon. And um, and then I later learned so much more of the nuances between the full lunar cycle that I'm sure I'll get into a little bit more in the rest of this episode. But suffice it to say, I was really into working with those full and new moons. And so around the full moon in Scorpio.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

Sorry, excuse me, new moon and scorpio. New moon and scorpio. By the way, if you're into astrology, I just want to mention for a moment that my moon in astrology is in Scorpio.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Yes. Yes. And my my rising is in Scorpio. So it was around the new moon, and new moons are great times for seeding intentions. And it was November-ish, and I wanted to cede an intention to create a conscious relationship. And I sort of poured everything into this ritual. I totally followed the ritual in the Channy app. Um, C H. Okay, so let's just say this is Channy. Is it Nichols or Nicholas? Nicholas. Channy Nicholas, very popular astrologer now, for good reason. Love her work, love her app. Um, I did followed the ritual in her app and seated my intentions to create a conscious relationship.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

So can I just pause there for a moment? If you haven't ever been in the app and what the ritual is, it doesn't involve any kind of animal sacrifice. It's not, it's like sometimes people hear the word ritual, and if they don't know, they can get a little like, huh? What is that? So I just want to say, you light a candle, you light a candle, you write some things down, and you meditate. That's all it is. Pretty much. It's it's it's it's not uh you take a bath, you know, you cleanse yourself, you set some intentions, you do some writing, you you just you know, you it's it's not uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

So so I do this, and the way that the moon works when it comes to the moon is going through there's 12 signs in the zodiac. Think of like a clock, right? And the hours and a clock.

SPEAKER_03 15:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Um the 12 hours and a clock. The moon is gonna go through each, it's like let's say it starts at midnight at the beginning of the month. That's the new moon time, and it's going to slowly move through those twelve numbers, those twelve signs throughout the entire month.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

And so halfway through the month, when the moon is full, because it grows in luminosity, it it is a new moon, there is no light on the moon. We cannot see it. It's the beginning of that cycle. And then it grows in luminosity, we get that crescent moon, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and then once it reaches ha the halfway point of that cycle, which would be the six o'clock time in that cycle, it is full. Okay. So astrologically, it is whatever sign the moon starts in when it's new, it will then be in the direct opposite sign when it's full. Okay. And then it's like twelve and six. So it does this through the month, but then if we just look at, let's say, the new moons and the full moons, it does this through the year. And so what I mean by that is Right. And it has a bi-monthly cycle, if you think about it that way. It's it's new and it's full. It's new and it's full. Twice a month, all year long. It is. And so it'll always be in the opposite, with some rare uh occasionally because it's not perfectly Right. It's not perfectly semestrical. It's not actually 28 days, it's like 27 and a half or something like that. And so occasionally we'll actually have two new moons in the same sign, um, depending on where and the degrees of the thing. But don't worry about that for now. Just know that when there's a new moon, like we just at the time of this recording, we just had a new moon in Aquarius. Six months from now, we will have a full moon in Aquarius. Yep. Um, and it took me a while to wrap my brain around sort of all of the six months from now.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

So, in other words, if there was something going on in my life that I wanted to work on in this month that had to do with the month of Aquarius, I could uh with the sign of Aquarius, I could start with a new moon intention ceremony or whatever uh uh practice. I like the word practice better than ritual. Okay. Okay. So I would start with a uh a new moon practice and I would do it at the time of the new moon during this time, right now. Yes. And then I could see that that that the intentions that I could that how I would work with that if what if what you're saying is if I'm understanding, is that the intentions that I would set now, I would go back and check to see if they had come to fruition in six months from now.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

So when I set that new moon intention, so the moon is a really nice way to work with like a six-month generative goal setting cycle.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

You can work with it in a six-month six to twelve months. Okay. Um, and I'll talk about that in a moment here. Um, and you could also collapse it in time and work with it with a single month period of time. You just won't be working with that particular astrological sign. Yep. Um, I really love using the moon and the lunar phases for goal setting. Um, and I have found that understanding the lunar cycle has been so key for me to understand how things are begun, created, gaining momentum, coming into some sort of fullness, and then closing themselves out. Because you also want to close the loop. And I do talk about this all on a workshop on my website called Complete What You Start. And I'll share a little bit more about that in a moment here.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

Can I just reflect on something for a moment?

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

I won't but also because I want to make sure I'm understanding. Yes. Um, so uh you think of a woman's menstrual cycle.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

A hundred percent. So the new moon is the period. And then the new moon is the period.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Is the period. Okay, so the new moon is when everything is the woman at that point is menstruating.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Menstruating, or you might also think of it as the end of the period. Okay. Depending on how you want to think about that. But yeah, that's we typically call the period day one, cycle day one. Okay. And then, you know, there's some natural variation between people, but let's say in a typical 28-day cycle in a woman's menstrual cycle, about halfway through, about cycle day 14, the woman will be ovulating. Right. So that's when the moon would be full. That is when the moon will be full.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

I mean, maybe not literally, but if we're combine if we're comparing those two things. If we say that the the moon is a symbol of the menstrual cycle, it could be. And I actually attract the women's. I mean, I think women have done this. Definitely.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

And we that you know There are some people that say I always bleed on the new moon, or I always bleed on the full moon.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

And I mean, I did a lot of practice when I lived in New Mexico with some Lakota practitioners, and they would say when a woman was having her period that she was on her moon. Yes. And like when you were on your moon, you weren't supposed to go in the sweat lodge. And you know, there were all of these things about um uh how how the woman's reproductive cycle uh really was a way to mark a lot of things within the well within what was going on with the people. It's very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

And I actually, in my own work, the way that I use the moon a lot in my coaching practice with people, and I use it as I use the lunar cycle, which I actually call the creation cycle, as a template for creating what you want in your life. And that's how you met me. Okay, so let me go back to that story. I do this new moon ritual um in November, and I set this very strong intention that what I want for my life is to create a conscious relationship. And I pretty much tell myself that by the full moon, so six months later, by the full moon in Scorpio, I will create a conscious relationship. And by the full moon and Scorpio, oh I can tell you what we were doing on the full moon and Scorpio. Beep. Which actually was an eclipse, which is a whole other, we could probably do a whole other episode on eclipses themselves. Um, but eclipses in general tend to bring great change. And I didn't know at the time that I set that intention that the full moon and Scorpio would be an eclipse, but suffice it to say, um, by the Full moon and Scorpio six months later, Kelly Brady and I were definitely together and in a relationship and already talking about what it means to be in a conscious relationship with each other. Um so that's why I say that for me, the moon is very intimately connected to our relationship. And I've continued to work with the moon.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

So you're a believer in working with the psyche in this way. Yes. And is what I'm getting. And that you're a believer because you have direct personal experience with it. Yes. Yes, a hundred percent. So this is not uh theoretical for you. This is not academic, this is not it's not only theoretical. This is actually a part of your spiritual practice. Is working with the moon.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

And I mean, I have four.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 23:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

I uh really love sharing about the moon. And there are a couple of things that I say about it. I say that the moon is my forever teacher. It it is my forever teacher. It's I learn something every cycle as I'm paying attention to the moon and its phases. And there actually is a a part of the moon that I you know, the new moon and the full moon, they get a lot of um attention. They get a lot of attention. Um, but there are these other two much longer. The new moon and the full moon are just punctuation marks in time. They only last a day or two before the moon starts changing once again. Most of the time in the lunar cycle, the moon is moving, moving. Um, or I sometimes I like to call it moon moon mentum, like momentum. Oh wow. Um and yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

And so you have movement and motor and all of those things.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Well, we're yeah, the I I don't know about all of the etymologies of MO, right? But I do think that they are related. Um so you have these two longer cyc two longer phases in the moon, the waxing phase, which is from the new moon to the full moon, when the the luminosity of the moon is growing, um, which is very exciting. So I also use the moon and the lunar cycle and the creation cycle for um time management and productivity, um, a topic I'm also very passionate about, even though I know it sounds very boring, but guess what? That's how we get things done. Um, and so the I find the waxing part of the lunar phase to be very exciting. It's you know, you start with, let's say you want to, is there a particular project that might be on your mind? Or let's just say you want to write a book. Okay. Right? Um, or right now we're working on building this edition for this house. Right. Right. Because and there there's the longevity of the cycle, and then I also find that there's cycles within cycles. So let's just say you want to write a book, okay? The first part is the initial idea, the initial spark, the seed, and that is that new moon. Um and I actually have a template that I use, I call it moon mapping, which I teach about in my Essential Oil Moon Guide, as well as my um online program, Complete What You Start, where you start with the seed, but then that seed drops into material reality. Okay. And that is when the the new moon starts becoming that waxing moon. That's when that crescent part of the waxing cycle starts. And it's like, okay, we have started. There is, it's not just an idea anymore, it doesn't just exist in the world of ideas and ideals. Okay. It has actually started to exist in material reality, but it's at the very beginning stages. It's those starting steps. And then those starting steps start to build on each other, and we create momentum. Okay. And then at a certain point, it reaches that full moon phase. For me, the full moon phase of a project, so in the in the thing of writing a book, like you have the idea, and then you have the time where you sit down and you actually start writing. Okay. And that's when you're beginning that waxing part of the cycle. That's when you're actually starting to doing the work. And then you're doing the work and you're writing more and you're writing more. And eventually you have a rough draft. That is the full moon part of that cycle. It's okay. Poppy's talking. Just side note. We had tried to kick the cat out earlier so that he wouldn't bother Poppy, but he figured out a way to get back in. Poppy Poppy. So the thing that I really try to teach my students is that the full moon part of the cycle is not it being done. Yeah. It it it's it's the part that I like to call it's a thing. It's like there's actually a thing here, but it's not done yet. And so the part of the cycle, the in the cycle of creation, the creation cycle, that I think tends to be it doesn't get glorified as much as it really should, is that waning part of the cycle, the part between the full moon and the new moon. The energy is dropping, it is less exciting. It means doing the cleanup work, it means doing the finishing touches. And hey, you might be someone that actually likes doing that part of it. But I think that most I find that most people, and myself included, really get excited about beginning the project. Maybe at the end we're excited about ending it. But when I go from my rough draft and going, oh, I gotta go through this whole thing over again. Well, right, it's like the fall. It's the season of the fall.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

It's the season of the fall. And that's a good point. So the leaves fall. I mean, you know, there's this whole process of things kind of pruning themselves back. Yes. I when I used to do like um, you know, I used to, I don't know, teach young women about, you know, a new idea about thinking about their menstruation, as opposed to this is a curse. Um, you know, it's kind of like within a within a woman there's this beautiful process where it's like the beginning of every month is just there's a tree that grows. I that's the way I think about it. It's like there's a tree that grows. Yeah. And it grows up and then and then in the middle of the month it's at its, it's at its brightest. It's like the leaves are available. It's summer. It's some yeah, and it's like that's the time. The birds and the bees are gonna happen, you know, and there is a possibility at that time that new life might be created. But if it's not, the leaves will fall and the winter will come. Yeah. And then the whole cycle starts again. And that's often why, you know, that pre-menstrual time for for women, um, you know, women can can feel a lot of feelings during that time that they didn't feel in the beginning of their in the beginning of their cycle. So women are particularly 28-day cyclic. You know, while we're reproductively fertile, we're we're in that place. I mean, on the other side of menopause, assuming that you don't uh, you know, take uh hormone replacement, you'll have a different experience with with your uh hormonal regulation. And I know the difference. I know what it is to be a fertile woman and then to cross over.

SPEAKER_03 29:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

And um I I'm I'm much more emotionally regulated now than I used to be. It's a really beautiful thing. By the way, for those of you who women who are listening and you're worried about how you're gonna feel after medical, I feel great.

SPEAKER_03 30:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:01

Um it it's like it was a bit of a transition, but on the other side, it's like, wow. Because I have a steadiness that I didn't used to have. I mean, when I was really reproductively fertile, when I was in that time prior to when I was gonna get my period, what we think of is maybe pre-menstrual, yeah, right, which has of course become pathologized by a lot of forces that would like us to believe that that needs to be medicated out of us. I would find that the things that were bothering me that I needed to be bothered by were more evident because the leaves were falling and I could see what needed to get cleaned up, what needs to be pruned. Exactly. Yes. And then it would really bother me enough that I would have to go do it. Yeah. I would have to say that thing to the person. I would have, you know, whatever that was.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

Totally, totally. Yeah. And it it's like in the beginning of the cycle, there's so much potential. But then when you get to that full moon part of the cycle, you get to see everything. You get to see everything in in light, and you get to see what's working and what isn't. You know, a common practice with at the full moon is is a great time to ask yourself, you know, what am I celebrating? You know, what have I accomplished in this cycle? And then what have I learned? And then what can I let go? Because at the beginning of the cycle, you don't know what you're gonna have to let go. You're you're you're still bringing it into material reality. At that full moon part of the cycle, it's like, okay, it is coming in. I think I said it earlier. It's the it's a thing. Sometimes I'm comparing it to like cleaning out the junk drawer, right? When you're like, oh, I need to clean out the drunk drawer, I need to clean out the drunk drawer. And then one Saturday afternoon, you're like, all right, I'm doing it. I'm doing it. That's the planting of the seed. And then you start taking the stuff out. You start having those starting steps, and then you start store sorting the thing, and then it's all over the counter or the living room or whatever, and there's sort of that point of no return. That's the full moon. So I I think that sometimes we think the full moon is like the it's done, but no, it's only halfway done. It's done enough that there's no turning back. Yeah. And that the only way forward is to start finishing right it up. And so, like you're cleaning out the junk drawer, now you're deciding what's going and what's staying, and then how it's going to be organized when it goes back in there.

SPEAKER_02 32:24

And it's editing, you're in that editing phase.

SPEAKER_01 32:27

And then it's done, and you get to rest. And that's the that's the very ending part of that. That's the crescent, the waning crescent, the very end of that um waning part of the cycle. And and then in that period of time, it's a very, it can be a very like way to connect again to your intuition. So if you think of, this is where I wish I had a little bit of a visual, but if you can imagine the lunar cycle and the new moon being at the bottom, you know, the new moon being at six o'clock, the full moon being at twelve o'clock, three and nine, if you cut it halfway, that that that bottom half is the unconscious. And the top half is the conscious. So the seed gets planted in the unconscious.

SPEAKER_02 33:15

You're giving a lot of credit to the conscious mind in that model.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

It's only it gets half credit.

SPEAKER_02 33:20

I know, but it's still a lot. All right, so anyway, I'm just reflecting on that. If we're it anyway.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

So the seed gets the seed gets planted in the unconscious. Okay. And it's in that unconscious place. It's you're getting, you know, as the light, the light part of the cycle, because remember, within that unconscious half, the moon is getting lighter than that waxing part. So the light is part of that conscious. It's sort of that yin-yang thing where it's yin-yang. It's it's like the scene and the unseen. It's the scene and the unseen. So within after that seed gets planted, you get you see a little bit. You're like, okay, I can see, I can start here. And then you step, and then you're like, okay, I can start here. And it builds and builds and builds. And then, you know, you get to that half moon part of that first half of the cycle. And and again, I have I have visuals on all this with my essential oil moon guide and my complete what you start um workshop where it it will make a little bit more sense. But um then you get over the horizon and you're in more con it's like more and more and more conscious. Okay. And then when when you get to the the full moon that it's a thing, that it is happening, then you gotta start descending back into the unconscious to get it done. And then at the end of that waning period of time, you get to connect back with your intuition and be like, okay, well, what's next? Okay. Make a decision about what what is next. And so I feel like, like, for example, we are in the process of building an addition on our house. Right now, we are in the larger scheme of that complete project, we're very much in those starting steps because we don't even have a permit yet. But we have a design. So if you think back to when we first had the idea, we had so many ideas. There was so much potential. We could do this, we could do this. And then as we started gathering more information, it was becoming clearer and clearer on what could actually exist in material reality. And then it's like, okay, now we need to find a contractor, and then we found a contractor, and then once we found them, we had a better idea of how it could exist in material reality. I would say the full moon of that project, of that phase of that project, was when we signed that contract. When we signed that contract, it became a thing. It wasn't done yet because then they had to work on the permit. Then they had to get all this other stuff done. And we're still in that, we're we're like, we're like rounding the corner on that part of that project being complete so that we could move on to that next part of that cycle. Um and then in the larger part of it, I'm imagining that at some point there's going to be walls, exterior walls, and we'll have like a walkway where we could walk into it. Maybe we won't have a door, maybe we won't have interior walls, it won't be finished, but it'll be a thing.

SPEAKER_02 36:20

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

It's a thing. So it I just share all this to say that I find that understanding this template for creation to be very helpful for myself in being able to orient myself to where I'm at in the phase of a project and to know what's appropriate to do when.

SPEAKER_02 36:44

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you my experience is that um you like a structure. I sure do. And you like a guide, uh, a spread a spreadsheet, a template. I do like a spreadsheet. A template, yeah. You know, like okay, like uh I like form. Like we're working on this project right now at the Center for Real Dialogue, where we're creating a program. And we and Nyssa's idea was, okay, for us to launch this program, and by the way, when we launch the program, we'll let you know. But um Nissa was said to me, Well, the way that we do this, which was very beneficial for me because I don't really operate like this, Nyssa said, We need to create a reverse calendar. And I was like, I mean, you can't see me. You know that thing that people do when they hold their hands up in front of their face and they're like mind-blown emoji. I was like, a reverse calendar? What is this thing? You speak of it. A reverse calendar. You create the gold genie at the end, and then you do all of the steps behind and you can work backwards. Yeah, I wouldn't have so this is where I think you uh I'm my opinion is that this is a place where you you, Nista Hangar, are in your zone of genius. You are really, really great. This is true. Yeah. I would agree with you that say thank you.

SPEAKER_00 38:14

Yes, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 38:15

You're welcome. So it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm giving you a compliment and I want you to acknowledge that that it's like and and this is a regular thing in our life.

SPEAKER_00 38:26

I don't really recognize compliments. I think that if I just agree with her, it's it it is saying thank you.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

But um thank you. I think subjectively you are saying thank you to you in your language again.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

But I don't hear the word you need that's accurate.

SPEAKER_02 38:40

I I just like to hear you say thank you. I don't I think yeah, I think because then I know you've heard me or understood me.

SPEAKER_01 38:46

And I've just learned not to be embarrassed that I didn't say thank you.

SPEAKER_02 38:50

Yeah, because I I really do get it that you know that I know that you anyway, this is just one of those things that we're working out in our marriage. And uh listeners, you're you get to be at the kitchen table while it's going on and poppy's barking at the cat. Um anyway, I do think you're in your zone of genius around that. I think that this is, you know, you're welcome. I think that this is one of those places where you you you really can see the and you orient in the world in this way. Uh it's much more structured uh than than what's nat what that is by natural flow. And I admire it. Um yeah, I admire it. I feel connected to the moon and I've loved what I've learned from you about it because it's it's added a lot to what I've learned along uh, you know, and I think my really when I fell in love with the moon, Nissa, was when I read Women Who Run with the Wolves back in the 90s. Yeah. And um, you know, and then I, you know, I had this great group of women friends that were like twenty or thirty years older than me, and they had a full moon circle.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:53

At the you know, that I had this wonderful friend named Maggie McLean, God may she, you know, may she rest in power. She was a great yogi and a wonderful teacher and a good friend for of mine in um she had a yoga studio called the Tree House. I think it's still open. I think her daughter runs it.

SPEAKER_01 40:09

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 40:10

I think it's still there. Um it was a really cool like tree house up in the it was up in the trees off the Hillsborough River, just a really wonderful space, and we used these great full moon circles there. And um maybe forty or fifty women would come in the heyday.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:26

And so we would get together on the full moon and you know, if someone sang songs and talk about our feelings, all the stuff that hippie women love to do. Well, and but I think that women love to do together.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

In the later 20 aughts, um, if you're local to Seminole Heights in Tampa, you might remember or had been to the full moon circle at Satva Yoga when it was still around. And that was that really for me was the beginning of my own moon journey. I mean I never really yeah, like they would say, Well, the moon this month is in um whatever it was in. I'm trying to think of um, you know, the the moon right now is in cancer or whatever. And and I would go, yeah, but the sun right now is in the opposite sign. And I didn't understand that the full moon will always be in the opposite sign that the sun is in. The new moon will always be in the same sign that the sun is in.

SPEAKER_03 41:24

Right.

SPEAKER_01 41:24

And you know, so I was just like, what, what, what's going on here? And um, that is part of what began my own journey as well. I do also want to, if you want to learn more about the moon, I have learned so much from Sarah Faith Goddess Niner with her book, The Moon Book. It is so beautifully written.

SPEAKER_02 41:44

Is her name, her given name, Goddess Nener?

SPEAKER_01 41:47

Well, it's it it's goddess, yeah. It it it doesn't actually spell goddess. Um, it's got Tess. Oh, goddess Diener. Um I think on Instagram her name is Goddess. That's incredible. Yeah, her her writing and all of her her businesses run um is called the Moon Studio, and she has really incredible classes on all sorts of things, intuition, and um, but her book, The Moon Book, is just it's so beautifully written, and it has taught me so much about really the nuances of she doesn't get into the signs that the moon is in. Um, she really just focuses on the lunar cycle it itself. Um so I will include that in the show notes.

SPEAKER_02 42:33

But if in every episode you bring up a book, I love this about you. Oh, by the way, it's one of the reasons I love you so much. We always have a book that you've read.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

I always I always list the books in the show notes, and I have a running list of podcast book recommendations on bookshop.org. So if you want to see, I meant to tell you that the other day that we have a whole collection of all of the books that we have mentioned in this podcast. Well, that's amazing. At some point, it would be great to have a link uh for the you know, like a thing. Yeah, we have we have it. Oh, cool! Yeah, we have it, and the the books are always linked um in the show notes, and then um I can also include in this episode I'll include the link to all of the podcast book recommendations. We gotta put women who run with the wolves in there again. Well, it'll end up this episode. I know. Um so yeah, if you have any other questions about the moon or how to work with the moon or you want to use the moon in your own project planning, personal projects, professional projects. Literally every time I do a professional project, I plan it by the moon. I as much as I can, I will begin the project on the new moon. I will have some sort of milestone that I think I can get to reasonably in a two week period of time, which is very key for that full moon, and then I'll know what I'll need to do to clean it up.

SPEAKER_02 43:50

I'm giggling. What you can't see is Nyssa has this what I call the Nyssa index finger that's my magic wand.

SPEAKER_00 43:56

It's my magic wand.

SPEAKER_02 43:57

It comes out and it starts pointing.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

And I'll twirl it around.

SPEAKER_02 44:02

But it reminds me of that there's a Zen there's a Zen Mondo that says, Don't confuse the finger pointing at the moon for the moon itself.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

Oh wow. Interesting. Yeah. Well, maybe we'll just end on that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:14

So Which is don't don't confuse the don't confuse talking about something for what it actually is. And and of course that mondo means a lot more than that.

SPEAKER_01 44:22

Well, don't confuse um listening about something for what it actually is. Go out there. Look at wherever you are in the the moon is always somewhere. This is another thing I say. The moon is always somewhere. Okay. So look up the where the lunar phase is right now. Is it waxing? Is it waning? Are you building momentum in something? Are you closing up something? How does that align with what's going on with you? What does the moon have to teach you today?

SPEAKER_03 44:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:46

And then find me on Instagram or reply to one of my emails and tell me what it told you. Oh, that's great. Because I want to know.

SPEAKER_02 44:54

Well, the moon, like your psyche, is always there whether you see it or not.

SPEAKER_01 44:58

Definitely. And there's always stuff you don't see.

SPEAKER_02 45:00

There's always stuff you don't see. And it's always there. Yeah. It's, you know, there is no nothing.

SPEAKER_00 45:06

Well, thank you for being with us this week, dear listeners. And we will be here.

SPEAKER_02 45:11

Thanks for teaching us today, Niss. That was really it was really great to listen to you about that.

SPEAKER_01 45:15

Yeah, I'm happy to do that. And maybe we'll talk more about different parts of it another time. Yeah, absolutely. And until next time.

SPEAKER_02 45:22

Have you ever seen this moon?

SPEAKER_00 45:28

Great example of us being different together.